Ideas to hide concrete gravel boards
Discussion
Hi all
I’ve been out painting my fence today as it was looking a little worse for wear and I have a dilemma on what to do with the gravel boards.
Up until today I had two 4x1 planks fixed to the posts which worked for about 5 years but predictably as the timber warped and moved the plugs pulled out or in some cases failed in the posts.
Concrete posts are not ideal to drill into of course and this was the best I could come up with at the time without breaking the bank.
As you can see from the picture below, it’s raised fairly high and so is quite prominent. And as such I would like to hide them with something. I wonder if cladding/ composite decking in the same colour is the answer but wondering how to fix them and have it last?
Is just simply painting them an option? Her indoors might refer to that as ‘hideous’ though.
Fence is not mine so I’m somewhat limited with what I can do.
I’ve been out painting my fence today as it was looking a little worse for wear and I have a dilemma on what to do with the gravel boards.
Up until today I had two 4x1 planks fixed to the posts which worked for about 5 years but predictably as the timber warped and moved the plugs pulled out or in some cases failed in the posts.
Concrete posts are not ideal to drill into of course and this was the best I could come up with at the time without breaking the bank.
As you can see from the picture below, it’s raised fairly high and so is quite prominent. And as such I would like to hide them with something. I wonder if cladding/ composite decking in the same colour is the answer but wondering how to fix them and have it last?
Is just simply painting them an option? Her indoors might refer to that as ‘hideous’ though.
Fence is not mine so I’m somewhat limited with what I can do.
Why not hide the crematorium-look gravel, put some soil down and plant something (or get a few containers if you can't change too much).Thanks for the suggestions so far.
Almost all attempts at anything green fingered around here goes catastrophically wrong! Almost everything dies. No interest or inclination from either of us to keep anything other than ourselves and the children alive.
It took quite some attempts to establish the bushes at the top of the garden.
Gravel needs to stay as we’ve trained the dog to do his business there! Makes it very easy to spot and pick up and saves the grass. No problem with the feline population in since we finished building in 2019.
All other thoughts gratefully welcome. Off to Google CT1
Almost all attempts at anything green fingered around here goes catastrophically wrong! Almost everything dies. No interest or inclination from either of us to keep anything other than ourselves and the children alive.
It took quite some attempts to establish the bushes at the top of the garden.
Gravel needs to stay as we’ve trained the dog to do his business there! Makes it very easy to spot and pick up and saves the grass. No problem with the feline population in since we finished building in 2019.
All other thoughts gratefully welcome. Off to Google CT1
Looks like a bit of Garden Shades Urban Slate going on there...it sticks to concrete posts and boards plenty well enough in my experience. I'd paint the lot. You'll lose the panel and post look and just have a block of colour that really allows greens to pop against it.
Maybe nail up some fake foliage that can't be killed?
Maybe nail up some fake foliage that can't be killed?
gruffgriff said:
Looks like a bit of Garden Shades Urban Slate going on there...it sticks to concrete posts and boards plenty well enough in my experience. I'd paint the lot. You'll lose the panel and post look and just have a block of colour that really allows greens to pop against it.
Maybe nail up some fake foliage that can't be killed?
Almost. Cuprinol silver something or other Maybe nail up some fake foliage that can't be killed?
Have been tackling something similar myself these past few weeks. Not quite as straight forward as what you're looking to do but I'll show you what I did as it may spark an idea.
We had a rather uninspiring garage wall and tatty fencing facing the house to which I attached some treated batten strips. Added a coloured preservative for added durability:
At the side of the house, we had an under-used area that ended up just getting stuff dumped there so made a feature wall. Because we'd be sat next to this, I went for cedar slats - much more costly but much better to look at up close. Also added a 'Love Island' LED strip:
For the 'skirting' area which is the bit you're considering, I used some marine ply, painted. In retrospect, I should have used composite decking strips and will probably replace with those at some point in the future.
Fixing for both was reasonably easy. Some wide batons screwed into the fence panels, black weed control fabric and the slats nailed onto the batons. Just mark or note where the screws that fix the batons to the fence panels are so that should you need to replace the panels, you can remove everything to do so. Again, hindsight is wonderful and if I were to do it again, I'd probably construct a separate frame of some description rather than screw everything into the fence panels as removing everything, whilst possible, will be a bit of a faff. But that's a problem for future me!
You can get an idea from this (and yes, I know that's not what a table saw is for but couldn't be arsed to get the other one).
The one thing to keep in mind is that you'll need to make some wider cappings as the rain will seep in between the slatting and the fence panels which isn't ideal. In the first picture, I found some old railway sleepers and cut a 'U' gap and rain slope and these slipped neatly over the top. Similar for the cedar ones but cut some bigger bits of wood to shape.
And you you do go for it and fancy the cedar, only use stainless steep nails / screws / fixings and coat with UV protection oil.
Obviously, if you fancied doing this you'd have to have a word with your neighbour but what you do shouldn't really effect them in anyway.
We had a rather uninspiring garage wall and tatty fencing facing the house to which I attached some treated batten strips. Added a coloured preservative for added durability:
At the side of the house, we had an under-used area that ended up just getting stuff dumped there so made a feature wall. Because we'd be sat next to this, I went for cedar slats - much more costly but much better to look at up close. Also added a 'Love Island' LED strip:
For the 'skirting' area which is the bit you're considering, I used some marine ply, painted. In retrospect, I should have used composite decking strips and will probably replace with those at some point in the future.
Fixing for both was reasonably easy. Some wide batons screwed into the fence panels, black weed control fabric and the slats nailed onto the batons. Just mark or note where the screws that fix the batons to the fence panels are so that should you need to replace the panels, you can remove everything to do so. Again, hindsight is wonderful and if I were to do it again, I'd probably construct a separate frame of some description rather than screw everything into the fence panels as removing everything, whilst possible, will be a bit of a faff. But that's a problem for future me!
You can get an idea from this (and yes, I know that's not what a table saw is for but couldn't be arsed to get the other one).
The one thing to keep in mind is that you'll need to make some wider cappings as the rain will seep in between the slatting and the fence panels which isn't ideal. In the first picture, I found some old railway sleepers and cut a 'U' gap and rain slope and these slipped neatly over the top. Similar for the cedar ones but cut some bigger bits of wood to shape.
And you you do go for it and fancy the cedar, only use stainless steep nails / screws / fixings and coat with UV protection oil.
Obviously, if you fancied doing this you'd have to have a word with your neighbour but what you do shouldn't really effect them in anyway.
Had another look this morning.
You could just replicate the line of sleepers as you have at the edge of the grass along the back. Paint them the same colour. Bit like this perhaps:
You say you're not green-fingered but there's plenty of plants you can stick in the ground and just leave, bar the odd bit of watering.
You could just replicate the line of sleepers as you have at the edge of the grass along the back. Paint them the same colour. Bit like this perhaps:
You say you're not green-fingered but there's plenty of plants you can stick in the ground and just leave, bar the odd bit of watering.
eltax91 said:
Hi all
I’ve been out painting my fence today as it was looking a little worse for wear and I have a dilemma on what to do with the gravel boards.
Up until today I had two 4x1 planks fixed to the posts which worked for about 5 years but predictably as the timber warped and moved the plugs pulled out or in some cases failed in the posts.
Concrete posts are not ideal to drill into of course and this was the best I could come up with at the time without breaking the bank.
As you can see from the picture below, it’s raised fairly high and so is quite prominent. And as such I would like to hide them with something. I wonder if cladding/ composite decking in the same colour is the answer but wondering how to fix them and have it last?
Is just simply painting them an option? Her indoors might refer to that as ‘hideous’ though.
Fence is not mine so I’m somewhat limited with what I can do.
I think it looks very good and, if you try to do anything else, you will spoil it. But a few potted box bushes or something green will make it look super. Buy an irrigation system to look after them.I’ve been out painting my fence today as it was looking a little worse for wear and I have a dilemma on what to do with the gravel boards.
Up until today I had two 4x1 planks fixed to the posts which worked for about 5 years but predictably as the timber warped and moved the plugs pulled out or in some cases failed in the posts.
Concrete posts are not ideal to drill into of course and this was the best I could come up with at the time without breaking the bank.
As you can see from the picture below, it’s raised fairly high and so is quite prominent. And as such I would like to hide them with something. I wonder if cladding/ composite decking in the same colour is the answer but wondering how to fix them and have it last?
Is just simply painting them an option? Her indoors might refer to that as ‘hideous’ though.
Fence is not mine so I’m somewhat limited with what I can do.
StevieBee said:
Had another look this morning.
You could just replicate the line of sleepers as you have at the edge of the grass along the back. Paint them the same colour. Bit like this perhaps:
You say you're not green-fingered but there's plenty of plants you can stick in the ground and just leave, bar the odd bit of watering.
That’s a really good shout! Thanks!!You could just replicate the line of sleepers as you have at the edge of the grass along the back. Paint them the same colour. Bit like this perhaps:
You say you're not green-fingered but there's plenty of plants you can stick in the ground and just leave, bar the odd bit of watering.
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